Posted on February 3, 2015 by Glenn Gow

“Businesses don’t buy things, people do,” says Peter Mahoney, CMO of voice and natural language software maker Nuance Communications. With buyers doing their own research before interacting with Sales, unfettered access to information on competing solutions, and as many as 100 branded touch points with which a buyer may come into contact before making a decision, it is critical for marketers to deeply understand the needs of customers at a very early stage. Effective marketing analytics, Mahoney says, is the key to doing just that. In this episode of Moneyball for Marketing, we take a look through Peter’s eyes at attribution modeling, multi-variate testing and other marketing technology supported means to use data effectively. Highlights include:

Knowledge is Power: Peter stresses that the place to start using data effectively is simply knowing the problem you are trying to solve. He shares some data listening strategies and shows how to begin leveraging marketing analytics of the customer data you already have to understand the best way to serve.

Attribution Revolution: With a constellation of marketing channels at play and as many as 50-100 touch points of branded conversation preceding a conversion, Peter shares the marketing technology products and marketing analytics methodology Nuance uses to disambiguate uncertainty about the attributed source of customer response.

Testing, 1, 2, 3: Or 10, or 100! Peter says that the effect of marketing is cumulative, and advises marketers to take a broader perspective on testing. Marketing analytics efforts must look not only at individual campaign elements but also at aggregate performance over a long period of time. He shares how Nuance used multi-variate testing in its holiday campaigns to increase conversions 14%.

Buying, not Selling: While marketing technology plays a critical role the modern art of persuasion, ultimately it is still people who are making the purchase decisions. Peter shares his thoughts on the importance of delivering content according to buyers’ preferences and establishing a business process optimized to fast, effective response. He also shares his thoughts on how cloud-based services support and sustain great customer service.

Peter Mahoney is the CMO of Nuance Communications and General Manager of Nuance Dragon. Nuance is the leading provider of voice and natural language solutions for consumer electronics, customer service automation, healthcare, businesses and consumers.